One metric, one definition

30 July 2026 · 4 min read

The finance dashboard said one number, the product dashboard said another, and the board deck had a third. All three were "revenue". None of them were wrong — they just meant different things.

Where the differences came from

• Gross versus net of refunds.
• Order date versus payment date.
• Currency converted at the daily rate versus the monthly average.

The fix

We defined each metric once, in a versioned model in the warehouse, with its rules written next to the code. Every dashboard reads from that model. When the definition changes, it changes everywhere, and the change is reviewed like any other code.

The meeting where people argue about whose number is right has not happened since.